Fowler Theater 2022 Investigation

The town is named after Moses Fowler who traveled with John Purdue and wanted to go into the mercantile business. Purdue eventually settled in West Lafayette while Fowler founded the town that bears his namesake. He later became the director of the Lafayette Bank and eventually became its largest stock holder. Owing to his financial success in this, his most profitable enterprise, and impressed by the land investment of Henry Ellsworth, former head of U.S. Bureau of Patents, he gradually acquired Benton County land. After Ellsworth's death in the late 1850s, Fowler purchased much land from his estate as well. A 280 acre lake just west of Fowler was drained in the mid to late 1800s. Built in the Art Deco style in 1940 and designed by architect Alexander K. Eugene. Fowler was the son of Samuel and Mary Rogers who hailed from Virginia. Fowler was born near Circleville, Ohio on April 30, 1815. He died August 19, 1889.

Previously on the property was the Fowler Hotel once operated by William Jones and was once connected to the old Fowler Hotel on its eastern boundary. Directly behind the old hotel once stood a bottle factory. One of its past owners was a man named Dick Vlastos. He also once owned the Dreamland Theater as well as the Fowler Theater. He later moved to California where he died. Members of the Potawatomie Indian tribe lived nearby and they still conduct festivals and Indian ceremonies.

In 1968 the manager at that time killed himself but not within the confines of the theater. He shot himself in the right temple at his home. In the 1990s the place became very run down and in 2001 The Prairie Preservation Guild stepped up to buy this building for $30,000 and began to renovate it. The inside lobby was changed as the current men’s restroom used to be the office of the original owner. A funeral was once held inside the theater and there is a picture of that hanging on the projection booth wall.

The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 2004.

Address: 111 E. 5^th St., Fowler, Indiana 47944

Telephone: 765-884-8191

Owner: The Prairie Preservation Guild with Dwight Snethen as its President

Website: www.fowlertheater.com

Hauntings: In the lobby area an apparition of a man in a trench coat and fedora has been seen probably first by a painter doing some restoration work. He ran out the door! Small shadows have been reported by the women’s restroom. In the men’s restroom Dwight saw the water suddenly come on without the handles being moved. Changing tables crashed down on their own without any human assistance. Past investigators have felt a presence there in the past. There is also the sound of talking that emanates from the room.

Around 11am one morning Dwight was alone and went into the office to count money, shut door and the light fixture to the left of the concession stand just fell out. Just before that happened, the office door began to move by itself. An old fuse box door slammed shut.

Some people near the concession area have heard the sound of applause in the otherwise empty auditorium.

Auditorium: Past owners have claimed to have seen a woman in 1800s garb sweeping the aisles. Moving shadows have been observed in the projection room windows from the auditorium floor. Dick Vlastos had his own favorite seat; right aisle facing the stage, third row and seat number one. During a past investigation, Dwight sat in that seat only to have a Ghost Box spit out his name. Light anomalies are seen near the right exit sign facing the stage and recent videos have also captured some of those light formations. Behind the screen area people have been touched by something unseen. Two side lights to the right of the stage have flashed on and off in the middle of the night.

During a past board meeting near the stage, a member mentioned the movie Die Hard, and a spotlight came on along with two side lights that turned green. Those lights are operated by a remote control unit and a board member said the controller was in another room. The unit must be pointed directly at those lights for them to come on. Most of these strange light phenomenon seem to happen between 11pm and 3am.

This is a report of two older ladies seen way back in the auditorium playing cards. This might be a residual effect from when that area was part of the original Fowler Hotel. Women have felt their hair tugged in this area. People have also reported seeing shadows running up and down the short hallways on the side.

A medium that visited this location spoke of picking up the impressions of bathroom attendants that could again relate back to the old hotel. Shadow figures have also been seen running back and forth on the stage itself. People have smelled the odor of cigar smoke while entering into the auditorium. Dwight smelled it once while sitting in the back of the theater.

One evening while Dwight was making popcorn at the concession stand, he saw a shadow run towards the men’s bathroom when another employee came to the front and Dwight began explaining what he had just seen. Suddenly both of them heard three knocks. This happened a second time to Dwight when he was in the office. He distinctly heard three knocks on the wall.

Executive Director, Jill Byrd had her hair pulled and name called on at least one occasion. She also claimed to have seen people sitting in chairs in the auditorium and had things move in her office. She has felt uncomfortable in the projection booth and she described it as though something was trying to push her out. Her personal computer once started up on its own while she was in her office.

Projection booth: There are multiple reports of people being touched here. An 18-year-old and a 19-year-old boy both visited this area in the past on separate occasions and heard a faint voice whisper, “Kiss me!” These encounters were a full year apart and the young men were unrelated to one another.

There is an incredible video of the door leading to the landing, opening very slowly. The last person in the projection room can clearly be seen tugging on the door to secure it before leaving the room. No one else was around and the handle did not move! There is a very tiny closet that nobody seems to like. That same psychic who has visited the theater on multiple occasions said that she felt that there was an elemental inhabiting the closet area. There seems to be much more activity during private investigations versus public investigations.

Lots of Ghost Box responses and personal encounters in this area.

Doors would open and slam shut on their own accord, and eventually, people began reporting hearing disembodied voices whispering in the halls or speaking in a theater otherwise known to be vacant.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Fowler Theater on September 17, 2022. Team members included: Charles Williams and Dale Kaczmarek.

Equipment setup: A Paranormal Music Box was placed on the stage facing the screen and curtains, a X-Cam SLS device, digital recorders and cameras, 4k Sony Nightshot camcorder, SB-7 Ghost Box, Ovilus V in both dictionary and phonetic mode was used and Dwight was trying the flashlight experiment.

Experiments performed: Dwight was asking the spirits to turn various flashlights off and on. An SB-7 Ghost Box session was conducted via the theater’s speaker system, Ovilus V in both dictionary and phonetic mode was attempted and a Paranormal Music Box was set on the stage.

Personal experiences:

Dale Kaczmarek: The Paranormal Music Box went off several times while on the stage area; however this could have been caused by the X-Cam SLS device being used at the same time. There were a lot of random words that came through the Ovilus V but perhaps only one real intelligent response to a question asked.

This was a public event so other people in the seats were also using their real-time devices at the same time which could have confused the spirits as to which device to answer through.

Evidence collected:

Norman fowler.MP4 – while conducting on Ovilus V session near the stage area, a question was asked, “Are we speaking to a man or a woman?” The device responded with, “Norman.”

Words or phrases spoken by the Ovilus V in dictionary mode: flame, calm, miss, material, crops, fresh, fluoride, every, cable, clean, well, money, students, scruple, drop, Norman, scratch, famous, anything, monument, solid, Frank, up, aim, sacrifice, maybe, arms, hat, farmer, plate, position, flower, known, grain, forever, stand, chief, conguive, drive, jumped, constant, eighteen, seat and score. Phonetic mode: help, you here, are, 8 and I.

Someone else using a similar device got the name Christine twice.

Conclusions: It was a pretty uneventful night in the theater this time. Lots of random words but one only intelligent response, Norman. There were two other names that came through; Frank and Christine.

There were however some words that came through that would possibly be relevant to the location and area we were in including; crops, well, farmer as we were in Indiana farmland.

None of the other devices that were employed alerted during our investigation there. It was very quiet.